Uploaded June 2026 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
To this day, scholars writing about the politics of memory in post-Ottoman Türkey often begin by claiming that modern Turkey was “based on forgetting” (Özyürek 2007). This may be true for historiography, but certainly not for collective memory.
In this talk, Dr Ellinor Morack (Otto-Friedrich University Bamberg) presents the results of their recently completed Habilitation thesis, which debunks the myth of “forgetting” and instead historicises the memory of the “War of Independence” in post-Ottoman Turkey. Presenting several examples from the genres of memoir, memoir-novel, and oral history (recorded in the 1960s), Dr Morack demonstrates how the public memory of the war shifted over time, what could and could not be discussed, and how motifs and narrative elements travelled across time and genres.
To this day, scholars writing about the politics of memory in post-Ottoman Türkey often begin by claiming that modern Turkey was “based on forgetting” (Özyürek 2007). This may be true for historiography, but certainly not for collective memory.
In this talk, Dr Ellinor Morack (Otto-Friedrich University Bamberg) presents the results of their recently completed Habilitation thesis, which debunks the myth of “forgetting” and instead historicises the memory of the “War of Independence” in post-Ottoman Turkey. Presenting several examples from the genres of memoir, memoir-novel, and oral history (recorded in the 1960s), Dr Morack demonstrates how the public memory of the war shifted over time, what could and could not be discussed, and how motifs and narrative elements travelled across time and genres.
